Agricultural mats for supporting livestock have been used in barns, confinement pens, livestock buildings, or other containment areas to provide a durable, resilient surface that facilitates maintaining or improving the health and safety of livestock such as cows, horses, pigs, or other animals standing or walking upon the mats. A plurality of mats are typically disposed over a foundation, usually configured as a slat-type floor structure comprising pre-fabricated concrete panels. The panels have regularly spaced slots or openings to facilitate the wash-down and removal of solid and liquid wastes from the area where the mats are used. To help alleviate stress on the joints of livestock caused by standing on such hard concrete surfaces, and to improve traction in wet conditions such as when livestock areas are washed down to remove waste, agricultural mats formed from rubber or other resilient materials have been applied atop the concrete panels.
Conventional methods of securing livestock mats against inadvertent movement include directly bonding mats to the panels or the use of metal components such as screws, bolts, or brackets to secure the mats to the concrete panels. These previous fastening systems have various drawbacks. For example, direct bonding of mats to the concrete panels results in the mats being difficult to remove when replacement or repair is needed. Conventional fasteners are generally tedious to install, and the metal components may pose a hazard to livestock, particularly if the fasteners become loosened or separated from the mats. Because livestock such as cows may weigh up to about 1400 pounds, the fasteners and mats must be able to withstand the heavy loads of livestock traversing the mats. A need exists for an improved fastening system for securing livestock mats that that is durable and that overcomes these and other drawbacks of prior fastening systems.